CHRISTOS NIKOU | USA | 2023 | 113 MIN | ENGLISH
More than delivering on the promise of his breakthrough Apples (PFF29), Greek director Christos Nikou has assembled a starry cast including Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed for this thought-provoking sci-fi romance. Fingernails finds Anna (Buckley) living with her partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White, The Bear), in comfortable, if slightly boring, domestic tranquility. Anna and Ryan are a perfect match. At least, they’re a perfect match according to a mysterious test that claims to accurately measure whether a couple is truly in love based on extracted fingernail samples from each partner. Anna secretly begins working at a testing facility, where she’s paired with Amir (Ahmed) to deliver intimacy workshops to couples looking to strengthen their bonds before taking the nerve-wracking (and squirm-inducing) examination. Though she knows that she should be content with her one true love, Anna starts to doubt the accuracy of the test as she and Amir improbably develop an intensifying chemistry. Concocting an alternate reality that’s off-kilter yet disturbingly believable, Nikou presents an achingly romantic paean to messy human emotion in a world obsessed with precision.
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson
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